Frog Road 67

At the time of writing, Frog Bikes is in administration, and the bike reviewed below is available to buy. We have contacted the administrator to request an update on the company’s solvency, and any implications this might have for customers.

The Frog Road 67 bike is a versatile bike for enthusiastic riders aged from 10-13. Aimed at budding pros, triathletes in the making, gravel adventurers, or those just looking to explore their local area, it can cope with all these requirements and more. The ability to swap the wheels over to turn it from a pure road bike into a gravel bike is a great idea. Priced at £760 with a £120 option for the gravel wheels (wheels, tyres, cassette and discs), it starts to make a lot of sense when you consider what it can do.

My daughter has always ridden a flat bar bike, but was keen to try drop bars. She was most daunted by the different brakes and gear shifting, so we did a gentle first ride over to a local cycle path where we rode up and down trying the three different hand positions (tops, hoods and drops) to build her confidence up. This worked well and after an hour or so we rode home happy that stopping wasn’t going to be an issue.

She found braking on the tops with the Tektro RL570 auxiliary levers to be the easiest initially, then braking in the drops, followed by the hood position. This was more of a hand strength and confidence issue, although the brakes were heavier to use in that position than the other two.

By this point she’d mastered shifting too – although she did miss her ‘gear window’ to tell her which ‘number’ she was in. The 67 comes with Microshift Advent 9-speed gears with a single front chainring. This means that shifting is only done with the right hand, which keeps things simple.

It was also her first time riding on 25mm road tyres, but this presented no problems. Although a bit nervous before setting out, she absolutely loved riding the Frog Road 67 and asked when we could ride next: a good sign.

For our next ride, we went over to a cafe that is a meeting point for my own group rides, and met the group for a coffee and hot chocolate, before they did their route and we carried on with our own. (Everyone admired the bike and was encouraging of my daughter, which was very nice.)

We put the gravel wheels and tyres on for this particular ride, as we planned to ride a couple of bridleways on the way home.

The gravel wheel conversion kit is an additional £120, and includes the wheels with tyres and tubes, as well as an 11-42 wide range cassette and 160mm discs. The bike’s chain was the correct length for the larger sprockets already, so all we had to do was swap the wheels over and go.

My daughter found that this gearing was appropriate for the ride and the wider spread proved really useful. The tyres were larger, with a shallow tread, and they rolled well on the road. In fact, they were arguably better all-rounders for Surrey’s finest pothole-strewn blacktop.

Sizing wise, we were at the upper limits for the age, height and (nearly) inside leg recommendations listed by Frog. The bike fitted really well, even with the seat post close to being maxed out.

The reach was great for my daughter, which is important for building confidence. The 38cm bar width could possibly have been a couple of centimetres narrower still, but it was fine. The cranks are Frog’s own, and are sized well at 146mm – great for shorter legs. A child specific saddle – a slimline version – also helped the fitting of this bike, and I heard no complaints about it either during or after rides.

The Frog Road 67 comes in two colours: a racing red or an electric blue. We had the blue version, and my daughter thought it looked great. The bike weighed 9.56kg, without pedals, in road trim.

Value

I have to confess I wasn’t sure why there was quite such a large price jump from the Hybrid 67 to the Road 67 and Gravel 67, both of which are £760, but looking closer at the specs and differences, I started to see why this was.

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The move to disc brakes over rim brakes; extra brake levers; gravel tyre capacity in the frame; wider gearing options; 9-speed versus 8-speed; and triple mounts on the forks all point to a more ‘serious’ bike. Furthermore, with a simple wheel swap (and for an extra £120) you gain multiple bikes in one: a road bike, a gravel bike, a bikepacking bike – or certainly an introduction to that – and you could also race junior cyclocross too.

Looking around at the competition, it’s quite difficult to find much that is comparable to the Frog. Islabikes is no more, Squish only does hybrids, and so on.

The Vitus Energie Youth CX Bike weighs 8.9kg, features 8-speed gears and costs £600, but it uses a 24in wheel. This means that it’s suited to the 9-11 age range and wouldn’t fit my 13-year-old daughter any more. Nevertheless, Stu thought it was a good bike that inspired confident riding from his daughter.

The 8-speed Boardman JNR Adventure Bike has a 26in wheel and is for the 9-12 age range. It weighs a bit more than the Frog, coming in at 10.5kg, but costs less at £480.

For the older children in this age range, the Canyon Endurace Young Hero is a serious option at £1,249. There are two sizes available: 3XS covering heights 151-158cm, and a 2XS which goes from 158-164cm. It features 650B wheels and has Shimano Tiagra components, including hydraulic brakes and a double chainring.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, a big smile and a ‘where shall we ride next time?’ is incredibly pleasing to a cycling dad. The fact that we can do a café ride, a mixed road and gravel route, or race (should we choose to) on one bike with two sets of wheels is really good too – and potentially saves space in the shed.